Spain: Alarms Warned Train’s Driver Before Accident

By LIZ ALDERMAN

August 2, 2013

At least three alarms went off inside the train that crashed last week in northwestern Spain moments before it derailed, prompting the panicked driver to activate the brakes three times even as he talked on the telephone with another employee, an examination of the train’s two black boxes released Friday revealed. The driver, Francisco José Garzón Amo, had answered a ticket inspector’s call on his cellphone and was traveling at a permitted speed of 199 kilometers per hour, or 123 miles per hour, before the train switched to another track in a reduced-speed zone. During the call, an alarm went off in the driver’s cabin. The black boxes recorded Mr. Garzón screaming as he tried to activate the brake. The train’s speed dropped to 195 k.p.h., or 121 m.p.h., but another alarm sounded, 500 yards from the curve where the accident took place. Mr. Garzón activated an emergency brake three seconds later. A third alarm sounded, and 13 train cars started derailing. Mr. Garzón activated another emergency brake as the train careened from the tracks and then slammed into a wall at 153 k.p.h., or 95 m.p.h., nearly twice the speed limit. Mr. Garzón was arrested last week and charged with reckless homicide in the deaths of 79 people.